One of the greatest days of Ben Gibson’s childhood was as a fan watching Boro snatch glory at Manchester City.

Today he hopes to give travelling Teessiders at the Etihad the same experience as Boro go to the big boys in the FA Cup.

The England Under-21 stopper recalled his schoolboy joy at watching Boro book a second season successive in Europe.

“I’ve been to Manchester City for a big game myself as a fan and it was fantastic,” he said, looking back at the tense high-stakes trip as a 12-year-old pupil at Nunthorpe School.

“It was the match in 2005 when Mark Schwarzer saved that last minute penalty from Robbie Fowler in the last minute and we made it back into the UEFA Cup.

“That was one of the best days in childhood growing up. It was an unbelievable expereince.

“For days everyone was listening back to Ali going mental on the radio over the save. It was great day to be a Boro fan.”

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But he thought he was going to miss out on the big day.

“It was the last game of the season and we knew we only needed a draw and everyone was buzzing because it was a massive match but my mam and dad said we were going to York shopping and me and my little brother were sat in the car just devastated.

“So we set off then all of a sudden they produced these tickets from nowhere and said we were going to Manchester and we couldn’t believe it.

“It was a fantastic day. Obviously we went one up with a brilliant Hasselbaink free-kick and they scored to level it up then they missed that penalty and it felt like we’d won the league to be honest.

“You never know, if things go our way we can give the fans a feeling something as good as that at the Etihad.”

Ben Gibson against Forest

And he insisted the team are fully focussed on the clash with the champions and won’t be overawed by the occasion.

“Yes the fans have been getting excited and rightly so but as a club we’ve been to City before,” he said.

“We used to go there every year in the Premier League, so in that respect it isn’t that big a deal and as players we won’t be getting carried away.

“We went to Anfield earlier this season to play Liverpool and I don’t think anyone can say were distracted by a big night or a big atmosphere.

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“And the Liverpool game helped us as a team even though we lost on the night.

“It showed the lads how good we can be and made us think we could achieve something no matter who we play against.

“City is another probably tougher challenge but we think we can rise to it.

“We’ll go there to work hard and play the best we can and let’s see how we get on.”